Pages

sábado, 30 de agosto de 2014

Augusto Farfus to contest International Suzuka 1000km race

Augusto Farfus is taking the opportunity of a break in the DTM calendar to head to Japan to race in this weekend’s International Suzuka 1000km race. For this one-off trip to take part in the Japanese Super GT Championship he will be racing for BMW Sports Trophy Team Studie.

The Brazilian is looking forward to teaming up with Germany’s Jörg Müller, who he has raced with, sharing the Nürburgring 24 Hours winning BMW in 2010, and against in the European and World Touring Car Championships, as well as Japan’s Seiji Ara. He will be racing a BMW Z4 GT3 in the GT300 class with his team-mates still in with a chance of winning the title.

“This was a great opportunity for me and I can’t wait for the race. While I have been to Suzuka before, that was in 1999 for a kart race, when I was runner-up in the World Cup and this, of course, was on the very different kart track. I am really looking forward to racing there as I have heard how competitive this series is and hope we can get a good result,” said the Brazilian.

The Suzuka International Circuit was designed as a test track for Honda and originally opened in 1962. It has been redesigned several times and in 1987 held its first Japanese Grand Prix there. The 1000 kilometre race was first run there in 1966, was discontinued for a brief period. The event on the 30th and 31st August will be the 43rd running of it and round six of the Super GT championship. The race starts on Sunday at 12.15 and is run over 173 laps of the 5.807 kilometre long track.